HOUSE HONCHOS DEAL IN MATTERS OF STATE

Lea Donosky and Glen Elsasser, Chicago TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

If there ever were any doubt about whether it helps to have friends in high places, the committee assignments doled out this week by the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee should lay that to rest.

When it came to the ''money'' assignments, the coveted slots on the Appropriations, Ways and Means and Budget Committees, many of the key vacancies went to Massachusetts representatives who had House Speaker Thomas O`Neill on their side, Texas Democrats who had Majority Leader James Wright in their corner and a couple of Illinois congressmen backed by Dan Rostenkowski, who had some clout to barter as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Illinois Rep. Richard Durbin got a coveted spot on the appropriations panel, and Rep. Marty Russo, who, as a member of the Steering and Policy Committee and a close ally and colleague of Rostenkowski`s on the Ways and Means Committee, was able to secure a new vantage point on the budget panel.

Another Illinois representative, Ken Gray, got his prayers answered. Gray, newly returned to Congress from his Downstate district after a 10-year hiatus, was named to the Public Works Committee, where he can give the newcomers some lessons on how pork-barrel politics was practiced in its heyday.

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FOR FOUR years, Michael Evans toiled in his White House studio as President Reagan`s personal photographer. And in his spare moments he assembled a staggering document of the Reagan era.

The results can be seen in an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art,

''People and Power: Portraits from the Federal Village.'' What began as a project of 200 black-and-white photographs eventually grew to more than 500.

Jane Livingston, associate director of the gallery, says she was struck by ''the stark homogeneity of the bureaucrats'' in the bipartisan display of movers and shakers. Inspired by the work of Civil War photographer Mathew Brady and Germany`s August Sander, Evans says the project had the blessing of the White House.

''The hardest part was getting them in front of the camera,'' said Evans, the 40-year-old son of a Canadian diplomat. ''Once they were in the studio, it wasn`t so hard.''

Who was the most challenging subject? ''The President,'' Evans admits.

''The reason was that I had done him so many times before.''

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THE POPULIST Caucus will rise again, promises Rep. Lane Evans (D., Ill.), although it is without an office or chairman in the new Congress.

Inspired by the Populist Party, which flourished at the turn of the century, the House caucus was organized two years ago to see that Congress gives the nation`s farmers, working people and small businesses ''a fair shake.'' One of its first actions was to ask constituents to mail members the receipts for their gas bills to dramatize the need to keep a lid on natural-gas prices.

Two of its former members, Tom Harkin (D., Ia.) and Albert Gore Jr. (D., Tenn.), were elected to the Senate in November. Harkin, former chairman of the caucus, now talks about having a House and Senate Populist Caucus.

''At this point things are rather tentative,'' says John Kupper, a spokesman for Evans, the only Illinois member. ''But the issues are still there. This year Congress must reauthorize the federal farm programs, and we have to see that the interests of the family farmer are served rather than those of the huge agribusinesses.''

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DONALD REGAN, treasury secretary and future White House chief of staff, has learned his lesson.

In his first meeting with White House staff, Regan declared a moratorium on all news leaks there. One informed source recalls Regan insisting that the days of leaking are over.

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AND FINALLY, leftover thoughts and items from the inauguration. The Washington Post reports that the rich folks at one inaugural ball got so miffed at having to wait for their furs after one of the big dances they got rowdy and someone had to call the police. The article, which could have been labeled ''A Tribute to the Commonness of the Ultra-Rich,'' pointed out that in the end people just grabbed whatever wraps they could get their hands on and stomped out.

Furthermore, it`s rare that a person here actually gets to see $1.2 million wasted. Granted, you might suspect it`s happening in one of those gray granite buildings over a period of time, but never right in front of you.

Not so this time. The presidential inaugural reviewing stand, constructed over weeks, heated, painted blue, served by a ramp from the front door of the White House to the entrance, palatial and, yes, somewhat thronelike, served no purpose at all because cold weather forced cancellation of the parade.